From the participle stem of Latinpraevāricārī ‎(“to walk crookedly, to play a false or double part”), from prae- with vāricāre ‎(“to stand with feet apart, straddle”), from vārus ‎(“deviating from the right line, bent outwards, different”), from Proto-Indo-European*wā- ‎(“to bend apart”) (the root of ‘various’).